Writing Center Proposal

Humaira Zakaria

November 3, 2010

Engl B5600

Professor Gleason

Writing Center Research Proposal

I have been a teacher for going on four years now, and I build on my student’s skills on a classroom basis. Quite frankly, I am used to 30 or more students sitting at their desks, and none of the students can receive the individual attentions they may need to help them achieve better grades and skills. To combat the many students that need help within my high school, there are tutoring services being set up to help aid them. By observing a tutoring center, I believe I can internalize how to help students on a one-on-one basis, and may be able to aid the set up of the tutoring services that will be provided for these students.

Not far from my high school is CUNY Lehman College. CUNY Lehman is actually a 15 minute walk from my job, and is highly convenient for me to travel to for my observations of a tutoring center. I managed to find my way to the “Old Gym Building” in where the tutoring center is located. The tutoring center is titled “Academic Center for Excellence” or “ACE” for short. I had met with the director of ACE, Althea Forde, and she informed me that the tutoring services were not limited to just ACE; but there are additional tutoring centers specifically for Math and Science. ACE provides tutoring services specifically for writing, standardized test preparation for the CUNY Proficiency Exam, and for any humanities and social science courses.

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I would like to explore the center’s history. Talking to Althea Forde she has informed me that the tutoring services had only evolved within the last 10 years, and before that it was not as catering to the many aspects of help the students needed.

I would like to next focus on the layout, location and physical setting of ACE. From what I did see, there were individual rooms for specific subjects that students needed help in. I also saw that each tutoring cubby had a working computer. I would like to focus on the arrangement of the layout and how it helps foster a learning environment for the tutee.

I would also like to focus on the types of students that enter the tutoring center and for what reasons. I saw an array of students walk in and out of ACE. I saw college freshman, graduate students, non-traditional students returning to college after a leave of absence, and ESL students that varied greatly on the languages that they spoke.

Before I had my meeting with Althea Forde, I was reading the many artifacts on the wall in the waiting area. Many of these posters were informational. There was one poster that exemplified different workshops offered so that a student can hone in on a specific issue they are having and can collaboratively learn on how to better build their own skills. There was also information on the CUNY Proficiency Exam, when it will be held, who is required to take it, and how ACE can help prepare them. I would like to delve into the other workshop services they provide and how they do tackle preparation for the CPE.

I also want to focus on the training the tutors undergo so that they are prepared to tutor. What certifications are required of them? How many hours training? What support

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do they receive after certification and training? What methods and theories do they use when tutoring? And which specific type of student population are they trained for? How many hours is required of them per week?

As of now, Althea Forde has given me oral confirmation to observe her tutoring site. I must await for approval by ACE’s writing coordinator Sarah Blazer. I am hoping that I will be able to observe their center soon, since there is much to learn about and document. I know that one of my classmates is interested in Lehman College as well. I am hoping to collaboratively work with her on this research assignment so that I can make clear connections between my experience at the writing center and the theories and readings we have discussed in class.